Testimonies of Others'

Ex-Convict becoming a Christian

Where to begin……………

It was a set of circumstances that brought my family to 'Fox Hill Church', my wife said it was 'like coming home' personally I couldn't see what all the fuss was about but Pam and Paige were happy to be here at 'Fox Hill' so I decided to 'stick around' for a while.
I had not stepped into a chapel by choice in over 28 years; So 'Fox Hill' would be something of a challenge, but I was to be challenged further, by 'Christianity Explored' a Bible study course, this gave me cause to reflect over those 28 years… and to my life before.

As far back as I can remember there was not a day that went by, that I wasn't a punch bag for my father's rage, I was 10 years old when he broke the butt of a rifle fracturing my right cheek bone, and from time to time the swelling appears as a reminder. I became an angry teenager who got comfort inflicting violence on others. By the time I was 17, I had served 2 Detention Centres, and by the time I was 20 I had been to Borstal 3 times…

1976 was to be a turning point in my life; I was at Stafford Prison serving 22 months.
A prison cell can be a lonely place, as it gives you time to reflect on the past, and on the future, my life was going nowhere, and I could see no future, the past was all I thought about.

One evening, to get out of my cell, and with the promise of tea and biscuits, I went to the prison Chapel, an ex-convict the Rev. Roy Catchpole was giving a talk, I sat and listened as this ex-convict poured out his life story, and I remember him saying "it's not too late to change your life, just ask the Lord for forgiveness, ask him into your life and you will be saved."

I went back to my Cell after eating half his biscuits and drinking his tea! But I kept thinking about the ex-convict vicar and the dynamic way in which his life had changed. That night I started to think about things he had said, I was at a real low point in my life, Prison had become my home and I was getting tired of it, so I got out of my bed, knelt down, and with nothing to lose I asked God for his forgiveness, I asked the Lord Jesus into my life…

In the months that past after my release I forgot about the prayer for forgiveness, forgot I had even met the Rev. Roy Catchpole. I had met my wife, who at the time belonged to a local Church; because of our relationship and problems at the Church she left, and for 26 years, never went back.

I settled down to family life, but trouble seemed to follow me, and as I battled with this, there seemed to be 'something' stopping me going that little bit too far, stopping me going back to prison, and because of my ignorance I always took things for granted, putting everything down to 'coincidence'.

Since coming to 'Fox Hill', and becoming part of a different kind of family I have learnt that the 'coincidences' in my life are the work of God, which for me all started by saying a prayer, in a prison cell 28 years ago, God had been working in my life and I didn't know it. Today along with my family I am being baptised, this is to show my faith in Jesus Christ and to proclaim to everyone that I am a Christian.